Parliament Watch: Citizens’ perceptions of the work of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia (2024)

October 21, 2024
8:19 am

Assembly, Parliament, publication

The Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje, within the framework of the Parliament Support Program (PSP), in the period from March 26 to April 12, 2024, conducted a field survey to better investigate the public perception of the Parliament’s work.

The analysis of public opinion “Parliament Watch: Citizens’ perceptions of the work of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia (2024)”, analyzes the thoughts and experiences of the citizens in relation to all the functions of the Assembly, control and supervision over the executive power, the public in the work, who the MPs represent in the Parliament, the parliamentary debate and reforms, trust in the Parliament compared to other institutions, etc.

The research conducted in 2024 shows that the citizen perception of the work of the Assembly is, generally, in line with the opinion expressed in the last three years, with slight improvements in several areas. On the scale from 1 – worst, to 5 – best, in 2024 the citizens evaluated the work of the Assembly with an average score of 2.3, which is an almost insignificant increase of 0.1 point compared to the score given by the citizens in 2023, which was 2.2.

HOW WELL ARE THE CITIZENS INFORMED ABOUT THE WORK OF THE ASSEMBLY

As most typical characteristic of the work of the Assembly in 2023, the citizens singled out the work of the Inquiry Committee on the scandal in PHI University Clinic for Radiotherapy and Oncology, the adoption of the Budget for 2024 as well as the changes and amendments of the Law on Games of Chance. However, the majority of citizens also stated that they were not satisfied with the way the Assembly performed its functions in the mentioned cases. Television remains the most popular channel among citizens for obtaining information about the work of the Assembly, while the Assembly TV Channel and the website remain little used as official tools for being informed about the Assembly.

ASSEMBLY CONTROL AND OVERSIGHT OVER THE EXECUTIVE POWER

The perception of the majority of citizens is that the Assembly does not fully exercise its constitutional authority to control the Government, that is, a quarter (23%) of the respondents believe that the Government has full control over the Assembly. When talking about the MP questions as one of the tools for exercising oversight over the executive power, citizens are divided as to whether they are used appropriately or to criticize or advertise. Most of the citizens (91%) do not remember which other oversight tool the Assembly used in the last year. The citizens who still remembered of a particular case, most often mention the work of the Inquiry Committee on the events that happened at oncology.

FUNCTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY

Most of the citizens have a perception that the MPs have a certain influence on the quality of laws. The adoption of laws with high quality, the oversight over the spending of the budget and the care for the implementation of the laws and policies are all pointed out as the most important functions of the Assembly by the majority of the citizens. However, the implementation of these functions by the Assembly has been assessed as unsatisfactory by the majority of citizens.

THE PUBLIC IN THE WORK OF THE ASSEMBLY

In terms of openness of the Assembly to the public, the majority of the respondents believe that the Assembly is fully or partially closed to the public. The majority of the citizens also believe that the MPs from their constituencies are not available for meetings with the citizens, that they do not sufficiently inform the citizens about their work, and they are not even informed about the local MP offices. Citizens remark that the MPs do not pay sufficient attention to the issues faced by the municipalities and the local communities. Most of the citizens stated that they have not been informed about the ways in which they can participate in the work of the Assembly, which has resulted in the fact that only a handful of respondents have attempted to participate in the work of the Assembly.

WHO ARE REPRESENTED IN THE ASSEMBLY BY THE MPs?

Respondents are relatively divided in terms of their impression about the degree to which the MPs represent the interests of citizens in the Assembly. On the other hand, most of them believe that the MPs always represent their personal interests, the interests of the political parties as well as the interests of the business sector. The respondents also believe that, in terms of marginalized groups, those that are best represented in the Assembly are social assistance beneficiaries, the LGBTI+ community and the Roma.

THE DEBATE IN THE ASSEMBLY

The perception of the majority of citizens is that neither the MPs from the government nor the MPs from the opposition do not take into account the arguments of their colleagues from the opposite camp. More than half of the respondents also believe that there is a desire for a compromise among the political parties in the interest of the citizens, but that such a compromise is rarely reached. In addition, more than two-thirds (69%) of the surveyed citizens have the impression that MPs often or always use language in which they belittle and degrade their political opponents based on their political, ethnic, religious and gender affiliation.

REFORMS

For half of the respondents the introduction of open lists, whereby in the parliamentary elections you would vote for a person, instead of a party list, would contribute to a more quality composition of the Assembly. Furthermore, half of the respondents also believe that it is important to establish multi-party groups in the Assembly in which MPs from different parties will unite around the same issues that are of particular interest to the citizens. Two priority topics for which such multi-party groups should be established in the Assembly that were indicated by the citizens are the youth and the issue of unemployed.

POLITICAL CONTEXT AND TRUST IN THE INSTITUTIONS

The number of citizens who believe that life in the country is moving in the wrong direction dominates over those who believe the opposite. On a scale from 1 – the lowest, to 10 – the highest, the citizens with the highest trust score rated the religious communities with an average score of 5.7 and the military with an average score of 5.4. The Public Prosecutor’s Office was scored 3.3 and the Judiciary with 3, which is the lowest average score among the institutions. The institutions holding legislative, executive and judicial power in the country were rated with average scores below 4: the President of the State – 3.8, the Assembly – 3.7 and the Government – 3.5. The citizens who rated their trust in the Assembly as 4 or lower say that «MPs do not work in the interest of the citizens, i.e. the state», «they do not work conscientiously and professionally» and «they adopt bad laws and laws that serve their personal interest». These citizens believe that it is, first of all, necessary for «the MPs to work in the interest of the citizens» and on the increase of the MP’s integrity, i.e. for the MPs to be honest, responsible and professional.